Statement: Liberation in a Generation Responds to the Administration’s Proposed Recovery Plans

In his first 100 days, President Joe Biden has worked to confront the Covid-19 pandemic and recession. As made clear in his joint address to Congress, the administration has also stated its commitment to addressing the longstanding, deeply unequal problems that define the US economy and make living in America so hard for so many — especially for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, and Pacific Islander people.

Since its founding, our country has created and maintained systemic oppression that has harmed people of color. Although we applaud the recent and future infusion of public investment made possible by the American Rescue Plan (ARP), the American Jobs Plan (AJP), and the American Families Plan (AFP), much more will be needed if we as a nation are truly committed to dismantling our current Oppression Economy and replacing it with a Liberation Economy, in which all people of color can thrive.

We commend the AJP and AFP for what both plans get right, but we also want to push our government to go further. Onward to deeper, necessary investments in the public. Onward to our liberation.

Moving Us Toward Liberation
The AJP and AFP are important downpayments that meet our current crisis and set us up for a stronger economic future. Notably, both plans show us that “big government” pays off, as underscored by LibGen Co-Executive Director Jeremie Greer in a recent op-ed with Groundwork Collaborative’s interim ED Lindsay Owens.

Here, we applaud a few key elements, though this is not an exhaustive list:

• Housing: The AJP and AFP make meaningful investments to address the need for affordable housing. Notably, they encourage states and localities to do away with exclusionary zoning laws that deter us from reaching more affordable housing costs. Pitched as a way to control traffic congestion and maintain residents’ quality of life, these laws have too often served as a racist trojan horse to keep people of color out of wealthier, better-resourced communities.
• Care: The plans expand access to long-term care and implement a national, comprehensive paid family- and medical-leave program. Considering that people of color generally, and women of color specifically, make up over half of all direct care workers, and that women of color are more likely to lack access to childcare, these policies will go a long way toward creating a more equitable economy.
• Tax policy: The AJP and AFP begin to undo our unequal tax system. The plans increase the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent, and they extend the ARP’s child tax credit expansion, which is estimated to cut child poverty among Black and Indigenous children by over 50 percent.

Where We Need to Push
Eradicating inequality in the US will require bold, transformative policy change. Here, we call out where the president and Congress should take action now in order to bolster these plans and ultimately deliver more into the future:

• Income: We need to go beyond the president’s statement that “no one working 40 hours a week should live below the poverty line” and ensure that no one lives in or near poverty — period. This means establishing a national guaranteed income program that provides direct and recurring cash assistance to help all people meet their basic needs, particularly people of color who make up more than half of those living or near poverty.
• Worker pay: We need to raise the federal minimum to at least $15 an hour, and we need to protect the rights of workers to join a union without interference and to collectively bargain for better pay and working conditions.
• Housing: We need to address the housing affordability crisis more aggressively — which includes repealing the Faircloth amendment to allow the federal government to build more public housing and supporting community-led efforts to establish social housing in the US. We also need to protect tenants’ rights through federal policy.
• Racial equity: We need to more intentionally address the nation’s ever-growing racial wealth gap through large-scale, focused efforts such as baby bonds, as the support provided through the recovery plans will not be enough on their own to close this divide. We also want to note that many provisions should be made permanent (e.g., the child tax credit expansion) and others need to be enacted immediately. For example, given how many women were pushed out of the labor market in the last year, we cannot wait a decade to finally have access to the full 12 weeks of paid- and family-leave benefits that these plans aim to provide.

Conclusion

There’s no denying that the Biden administration is doing — and rightly and righteously spending — a lot to propel much-needed government action. Though we’re witnessing a major downpayment on our recovery, building a resilient, inclusive economy will require much more.

In the coming days and months, we will work to support the passage of these plans while also pushing the administration and Congress to do more to meet the challenges people of color have long faced in this economy and our society.